Lion is one of those films where the opening credits are effectively spoilers. As we see Saroo (Sunny Pawar) struggling to survive in a remote area of India with his mother and older brother, we have already deduced that this cherubic child will be, A, separate from his family, B, adopted by Kidman and Wenham and uprooted to Australia and, C, grow up to be Dev Patel.

The first part of the film, the Indian part of the film, is in the mode of all those classic films about childhood – 400 Blows, Pather Panchali, Kes – films that really see the world through their eyes. You can't go wrong with a cute kid lost and alone on the streets of a big city. Kolkata seems like a hazardous place with predators lurking everywhere. The cinematography (by Greig Fraser, who also shot Rogue One) in this section is particularly good: it looks beautiful, but it also real and lived in, like the memory of a visit.

The second part of the film in Australia, where Saroo begins to wonder where he came from and become alienated from the life he has assumed, doesn't quite have the same impact but that's inevitable. Where the first was about movement and danger and visual storytelling, the second is about sitting, security and speaking. The moment Dev Patel replaces Pawar is inevitably a moment of disappointment – in these long time frame movies audiences almost always prefer the kid version to the actor that takes the role as an adult. I should say though that Patel is pretty good in this, playing a man who suddenly comes unstuck inside his own happy and successful life. He always struck me as pretty gormless on screen, but here he resembles a young Alfred Molina and his guileless quality comes across a truthful and real.

Lion is the one of those films you expect to be a bland Oscar Pleader, so it is real surprise when there is actually film making on display. Garth Davis co-directed Top Of The Lake with Jane Campion for TV and his storytelling is economical, with a great eye for putting the camera in the best possible position that means he never has to labour a point. Only right at the end does the film let itself down a little with a soppy number “Never Give Up” by Sia, laying over the closing credits.